Jim Armstrong, a former Denver Post sports writer and columnist, has lost his job with the newspaper after it was learned that he bet on sports.

Armstrong was one of several people who bet on sports through a local bookmaker that was pinched. Some of the bookie’s clients had weekly limits as high as $50,000. The person who is alleged to have run the operation, Daniel Dinner, is a 70-year-old who has been doing it for nearly four decades.

“Readers have to believe and trust that all of us at The Denver Post cover events impartially and without a stake in the outcome,” said Gregory L. Moore, editor of The Post. “We take this very seriously.”

Say Armstrong were writing about baseball, but only betting on basketball. Would that affect his coverage? There are some fair questions to be asked, but when you’re involved with illegal activity that can alter the way you do your job, it’s grounds for dismissal.

Let me just say that I’m glad the sports radio networks where I worked didn’t have the same standards. If they did, half the people on staff would be out of work.